I'm a freelance writer who has published in the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times and others, and the author of the Forbes ebook "The Millennial Game Plan: Career And Money Secrets To Succeed In Today’s World." I graduated Phi Beta Kappa with Honors from Stanford University and have a master of arts from Columbia University’s School of Journalism. To learn more about me, go to www.laurashin.com, or follow me at @laurashin.

Before then, I was always a mess with my finances. I experienced terrible debt in my 20s, once loaned somebody $12,000 or $15,000 on my credit card (I don’t even remember the amount), and even after that was over, slowly began amassing even more debt in my early 30s. It was only a few months before I got that budget that I opened my first adult savings account and began contributing to it.

Creating a budget was a huge turning point in my life – and it set me on a new career path as well. The budget enabled me to pay off my credit card debt in less than six months and my grad school debt three-and-a-half years after graduation. During job interviews at a personal finance publication, my experience with debt was considered a plus and they hired me as an editor. Now, as a freelancer, I write about money management regularly.

(Aaron Patterson/Flickr)

While I am far from an expert, in three years of interviewing personal finance professionals, I have adopted many money habits that could help you as well. Some strategies I personally need because I’m naturally so bad with money; others are good for everyone, even those who have an instinct to be careful with their cash. Pick up whatever seems useful to you – or let me know your best habits. Wherever you are with your finances, remember this: If someone as ridiculously stupid as I am with money can get control over it, so can you.

1. I track my expenses.

Numerous sites out there allow you to connect your financial accounts, ranging from checking to credit cards to retirement accounts to loans so you can easily see whether you are spending more than you are earning and where your money goes. I use Mint and find its smartphone app especially useful for on-the-go money questions, like what my checking account balance is.

Knowing what you are doing with your money is the first step to gaining control over it. As the old saying goes, what gets measured gets managed. Through Mint’s trends feature, I can see, for instance, when I spend more than I want to on, say, dining out. With that knowledge, I can then revise my budget to ensure my spending is in line with my goals.

Since I’m a freelancer, I created a budget using a minimum amount of income I can depend upon every month. (I go into more detail on how I manage my money as a freelancer in the related story, but salaried workers can still use this method.) From that income number, I subtract all my regular expenses — rent, utilities, various types of insurance, retirement contributions, transportation, etc., and use a set grocery number per month that I try to stick to. After that, I have a certain amount of money left, which I live on for going out, travel, shopping, etc. I divide by four, and make that my weekly allowance.

In order to make sure I don’t exceed this amount, I use a spreadsheet that logs all my expenses and shows me how much I have left for that week. Let’s just say that this amount is $200 a week. If I have a $30 dinner, then the spreadsheet will automatically reflect I have $170 left. If I go over by $25, then the deficit will roll over, so I start the next week with $175.

Using this method, I have also “planned” my spending so that if I have, say, a friend’s birthday dinner on February 24, I’ll mark it in the spreadsheet in advance so I enter that week already knowing I’ll be spending an estimated, say, $50 that night.

This method might be too much for some — it does require a certain level of meticulousness — but I personally need it because, left to my own devices, I would overspend all the time.

3. I use high-yield bank accounts, Check for bill reminders and a rewards credit card.

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I think that is a very solid list of ways to handle personal finances. I would like to add a few things based on my experience and understanding. First, I would like to give a quick shout out to spreadsheets for your step 1 entitled ‘I track my expenses.’ Some people (myself included) prefer an offline solution and spreadsheets work well. Second, regarding your step 5 entitled “I have five months of savings in an emergency fund,” this is a subject of constant debate on a variety of financial forums over how much is necessary. Some people think of an emergency fund (EF) in terms of a reasonable amount of time to out of work (due to loss of job or other hardship), and others treat EF as a way to pay for an expensive repair i.e. car transmission, water heater, medical, etc. The EF essentially boils down to your individual comfort zone. If your cash flow is high then your EF can be lower. That being said, I would never suggest having nine months or more of expenses in savings. That money could be better utilized elsewhere i.e. saving in a retirement account (Roth, 401k, or even a taxable) or paying off debt. Third, in regards to your step 6 entitled ‘I have no debt,’ I would say it is best to treat debt like a flesh eating bacteria. Debt hinders both your ability to save (in a sensible way that is) and contribute to retirement all the while lining someone else pockets. Congrats to you for having no debt by the way!

I would like to give a ‘virtual thumbs’ up to your step 7. Low cost index funds are the way to go. I too would recommend Vanguard, specifically the total stock market index. Lastly I would like to add a few things to track for the person who already does much of what you mention or who simply wants to expand on what they are already doing. I would suggest tracking your net worth, retirement, and debt. In my first addition to your article I mentioned spreadsheets and they help out a ton with tracking the aforementioned financial items. In order to track your net worth you simply take all assets and subtract debts. Sometimes a hefty savings account can distort your image of your financial situation and tracking your net worth allows you to see the big picture. Tracking your retirement and debt allow you to see your debt decrease (hopefully) and your retirement accounts increase. I usually track them on a monthly basis. At the end of the year you get a good picture of how you have been doing in terms of saving for the future and getting rid of that flesh eating bacteria we call debt.

Thanks for the excellent road map for any self employed person – especially when it comes to managing finances. As more and more people morph from employees to “entreprenuers” or “contractors” in the new world order, this information about creating set asides for taxes, redundancies for organizing work and managing uneven cash flow in a world without regular paychecks – is excellent. Thanks for putting this together in such a readable practical way!